Dr. Alexander Boreham (HONORS 2014-15)

FB Physik

Alexander Boreham received his Diploma in Biophysics at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin in 2009. He later became part of the Leibniz Graduate School of Molecular Biophysics and completed his PhD at the Freie Universität Berlin at the Department of Physics under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ulrike Alexiev. During his thesis entitled “From molecules to tissue: fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy applied to nanoparticles and biomolecules involved in inflammation and pain ”, he worked in close cooperation with groups from the chemistry, pharmaceutical and animal pathology departments to apply the new methodologies of single-molecule fluorescence microscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) to visualize nanoparticle structures and nanoparticle distribution in tissue, while dynamical properties of polyglycerol-based nanoparticles were analyzed using time-resolved fluorescence lifetime and anisotropy.

Focus of research

Developments in the field of nanomedicine have produced new approaches to drug delivery. These nanosized drug delivery systems offer a number of advantages over many conventional drug delivery systems. However, successful biomedical application of nanosized drug delivery vehicles requires a comprehensive understanding of their physicochemical properties, response to different environmental stimuli, cytotoxicity and biodistribution as well as the influence on the loading, distribution and release of drug molecules within the vehicles structure. It has been shown that advanced fluorescence based techniques are able to elucidate important parameters of such nanosized drug delivery vehicles, from the molecular structure to their distribution in tissue samples.

Research project during his time as an HONORS Fellow

Dr Borehams research project focused on the visualization of cellular interaction and uptake pathways of biocompatible nanosystems with excellent prospects for biomedical application. Better knowledge of the interactions of nanosystems with cells is required to further develop and optimize these nanosystems regarding their cytotoxicity, drug transport capacity and site-directed drug delivery. Here, state-of-the-art fluorescence microscopy, such as single-molecule microscopy and super resolution microscopy has been employed to visualize the cellular uptake of nanosystems based on polymer architectures, e.g. thermoresponsive nanogels.